The London Bike Show 2013 – Big Report 1

Before the show opens the pump trackers get their eye in.

Fancy a bit of Brendogging? He’ll be here at some point today to do some skills coaching. He holds in his left hand one of his signature DMR Vault pedals. They’re very black and nice.

Everyone loves chasing ambulances don’t they? Quite a few help-you-with-your-SMIDSY-claims outfits here. Come on down! Don’t forget your neck brace.

Scott ‘Boom Boom’ Beaumont. Turning up early to get some practice in for the pump track challenge and the jump off later. That’s professional that is. His Yeti 4X is ever-so-slightly PIMP.

Canyon. Massive Euro brand. Mail order brand in the UK. Usually amazing value for money. This is the Nerve AL+. 150mm all mountain bike.

142mm bolt-thru back-end on the Canyon Nerve AL+.

Thread the needle. Front mech cable peeps its way through this brace.

Canyon Strive. Long travel enduro, apparently. It felt light for a bike of this type (sorry, forgot to bring our scales). This is the bike that Joe Barnes and the rest of Canyon’s enduro race team will be competing on in 2013.

Nice looking top tube to look down upon as you’re bubba scrubbing.

142 bolt-thru. SRAM XX1 drivetrain. Modern. Sorted.

RockShox Reverb Stealth on the Canyon Strive. Internal cable routing with cable entry point low down in the seat tube.

Canyon Nerve CF. This is a picture of the rear axle. The Canyon guys are very excited about the not-a-pivot Flex Pivots on this model. Seems a good idea to use material flex for somewhere that is otherwise going to be a very minimally rotating bearing/bush pivot.

The Canyon Nerve CF full side profile. 120mm trail/normal/fun bike.

Canyon seem to use a different suspension design for all their different models/disciplines. The Nerve CF uses a fully-floating shock system.

You know how with flat wide handlebars you often have issues with them potentially striking the top tube when the bars spin around in a crash, or in transit etc? Well, here’s Canyon’s solution. An integrated bump stopper on the top tube and headset top. Nice.

Canyon Nerve AL8.9. 110mm travel full suspension 29er. Comes with a 120mm fork up front. Looks like a nicely sorted machine to us.

Big old gravity bikes are almost unfashionable now aren’t they? Shame. They’re ace fun. This Canyon Torque EX is a slack, air sprung 170mm/160mm plummeting grin-factory.

Cane Creek Double Barrel Air on the Canyon Torque EX. The air version doesn’t quite look as cool as the coil version does it?

An entry level niner. The Canyon Yellowstone AL6.9. 1099 euros (sorry, have temporarily misplaced the UK price list!)

Cheap-ass electric mountain bike. Possibly the worst bicycle of the whole show. Quite tempted to set fire to it. Or throw it in the Thames.

Video cameras! This is the Drift HD Ghost. It’s only been out a couple of months. It has a screen on the side so you can see what you’ve recorded, or check if you’ve got it pointed in the right direction. Comes with a remote control too so easier to hit ‘record’ without disrupting your ride.

1080p resolution at 30 frames per second. It will do 60 frames per second (for slo-mo) but at a reduced resolution. 11 megapixel stills mode. Also does timelapse (for those moody/cliched/annoying clouds speeding over the hills opening shots).

Waterproof to 3m without any extra housing required. 170° super wideangle lens. Can also be run at 120° and 90° angles too. Rotating lens, so you can fine tune the horizon levelness when mounting it to your round crash helmet. 3hr battery life.

The Drift HD Ghost also acts as its own Wifi network so you can communicate to your smartphone for both remote control usage or to play back your footage on your phone.

‘Performance theatre’ is probably slightly overdoing it. ‘Muffled talking whilst sat on stools’ would be better.

Some people will like this. City dwelling mountain bikers maybe. It’s basically a shoe-bag for your dirty bike. Google for ‘slip-a-ride’ if your interest is piqued.

Torquemada has a stand at the show and he was doing brisk business.

More video cameras! The GoPro Hero3. 25% smaller and lighter than the Hero2. 1080p resoution at 30 frames per second AND 60 frames per second. Will also do 120 frames per second at 720p. Also capable of shooting at 2.7K and 4K mega-resolutions, but only at 12 frames per second. There will be a firmware update coming that will up frame rates of the 2.7K and 4K modes.

Flat (not curved as before) lens, which as well as being better at underwater low light will also be less prone to water droplets forming (and staying) on the lens. So less mud splatty obscured video footage for British YouTubers.

The old Hero2 and new Hero3 side by side for comparison. What else can the Hero3 do? A lot. Built-in Wifi. Wifi remote included in the box. Improved low-light performance. Micro SD card slot. Mini HDMI output. In the near future there’ll be ability to control up to 30 GoPros at once from one master control (ie. a smartphone or tablet). The range of this remote setup will be about 100ft. There will filmmakers out there already contemplating what stuff this will potentially allow to be shot.

Finally, a touch screen rear panel is available separately. Finally finally, the Hero3 is waterproof to 60m in its housing.

Exclusive*! Hope’s new locking grip. The locking collars are fully underneath the rubber so much comfier to ride on if you’re one of those people who ride on the ends of their handlebars (ie. pretty much everyone). Moulded in the UK. Aluminium end caps, available in all the usual Hope colours. Will be about £25.

*probably

Hope flip-flop hub. Not really in production, yet. Allows either singlespeed-with-disc setup or fixed (no brakes innit) setup. Goes down to a 15T sprocket.

In other news, Hope will soon have Stans Arch rims available in their wheel builds. And they will be doing 650B Stans rims too.

Product of the show! Topeak Prepstation tool box. Here it is in packed-down portable guise.

Scroll down a bit to see it in all its unfurled and ready guise. Love it! It is quite expensive (£599) but who here doesn’t want it?

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